Conversations

The Millennial Mindset with Kieran Mathew

Youth Marketer & Entrepreneur |Toronto, Canada

Ambition is something that cannot be stifled in some people. These people often go on to create helpful and imaginative products and services. Or, in the case of Kieran Mathew, you use that ambition to fuel others to create, educate, inspire, and innovate.

The Person

Kieran is, at his core, an entrepreneur. To round out his qualifications you can add speaker, advisor to startups, and leading youth marketer who has been featured in many publications. Drawing on his university experience where he became deeply interested in marketing, he discovered that nobody knows the student market better than the students themselves.

“Nobody understands the student market better than students themselves.”

During our conversation Kieran casually dropped the figure that the average 20 year old sees about 15,000 marketing messages a day. Knowing this, and seeing the lack of conversions that should come with that many impressions, the idea was born that marketing agencies needed appropriate representation on campus in order to get their message across in a way that would increase conversions, brand loyalty, and recognition among students.

“I saw what young founders were going through and it didn’t scare me away, it actually made me excited to try and do it myself.”

The Idea

Amplify is “a full-service marketing firm which helps brands thrive on university and college campuses.” Amplify was born of necessity to create a network of students to help inform creative at big brands who have their sights set on the student market. Kieran noticed that brands were not actually talking to their consumers enough, especially in the student market. This disconnect was the catalyst for creating a close-knit group of people who could bridge the gap between the student market and the brands trying to reach them—a win-win all around.

Mindfulness

Kieran is no stranger to mindfulness practices. His grandmother meditates for five hours a day. He jokingly punctuates that with “and I slept 5 hours last night”. Though his busy schedule does not afford him five hours a day to devote to mental fitness, he takes the time whenever he is able to just be aware.He says that mindfulness or self-awareness doesn’t have to take 5 hours or even 30 minutes, but is just a matter of taking in what’s going on around you and internally, being present to it. As he scans the room, he makes note of the little details that might escape some and is conscious of what he’s feeling and thinking.

When asked what mindfulness means to him, he pauses thoughtfully before articulating “Mindfulness, to me, is just having an understanding of self and the present.” He elaborated sharing that “Mindfulness is being present to your thoughts, experiences, and feelings but understanding that they are not the self. It is looking internally to see that you are the unchanging observer of all.” Kieran likes to focus on the process of asking questions. When faced with a situation that is causing grief or stress or otherwise consuming too much mental energy, he will ask himself “What am I actually feeling and what thoughts are making me feel this way?” When you take the time to understand what’s happening, what the feelings mean, and what the triggers are, it becomes easier to isolate those feelings and further explore them at a later time through meditation.

“Meditation enables you to, in some cases, get to a state in which you are comfortable with those triggers”

On the topic of journaling, Kieran is aware of the stigma attached to that particular word and how it often evokes images of the young girl writing about her crush in her diary. His aim is to find unique ways to reframe the topic in ways that might change someone’s perspective on it.

When asked what a life well lived would look like to him, it boils down to three salient points:

1. Maximizing impact for young people — They are the future and their experiences and interactions will be what shape the next generation of leaders, innovators, and educators.

2. Shift the conversation from “Why this won’t work” to “How can we get this done” — Entrepreneurs often approach those close them with their ideas and more often than not the responses are “That won’t work”, “It’s already been done”, or “That’s very expensive”. Working around these questions to remove the doubt and negativity help ideas flourish in a supportive environment.

3. Being impactful in helping people execute their ambitions — Supporting not just ideas, but the process of building ideas, is key in the development of any entrepreneurial venture.